This is a blog dedicated to documenting the life of a short, chunky, Japanese guy who collects cards.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Flea Market Finds #26: Wax Boxes & Star Trek Figures

When:Sunday, December 9thWhere: Capitol Flea MarketWhat: Sports Card Wax Boxes & Star Trek FiguresHow Much?: $18I've been wanting to walk around the flea market for a few weeks now... but the weather here in the Bay Area hasn't been cooperating. Thankfully... yesterday was nice and sunny, so I called up my buddy and asked him if he wanted to head out there.Since money is tight, I didn't plan on buying anything unless it was super cheap and in the end, I walked away spending less than $20... which is a lot less than I sometimes spend.Here's what I picked up:Purchase #1: A Pair of Wax Boxes$10

2001 Fleer Impact Baseball

1990/91 Score Hockey

Five dollars a box? I'm all over it. I know they aren't exactly hot products, but they'll entertain me for at least 30 minutes on one of these cold, winter days when I'm bored. Who knows... maybe I'll get lucky and pull a cool Gwynn insert or a overproduced Brodeur rookie card.

Purchase #2: Star Trek Figures$8

My buddy and I came across this vendor who was dumping a huge toy collection, so we stopped to see what he had. After digging through his boxes for nearly an hour, my buddy emerged with over 200 Hot Wheels,while I walked away with 24 Star Trek Figures... six of them are duplicates that aren't pictured.

Now, I like Star Trek, but I'm more of a Star Wars kind of guy. Which means that I have no intention of keeping these. Hopefully I can get a few bucks a piece the next time I'm a vendor... if not, at 33¢/figure... I should be able to at least make my money back.

What about you...

Do you ever buy stuff with the sole intention of flipping it?

I'm definitely not in this hobby to make money. Actually, I'm fairly certain 90% of my purchases are like car purchases... they drop in value as soon as I take possession. However, if the opportunity presents itself and I'm able to add to my cardboard budget... I'll take it.Happy Monday everyone and sayonara!

Sometimes. Not often though, because generally I'd see something that looked valuable, buy it at my "discount," and then realize I somehow overpaid. Like I once bought a printing plate for $10...and that was an overpay by a lot. Recently bought another one for $2...still probably an overpay lol.

Damn... what's the hobby world coming to when $2 is too much for a printing plate? If it makes you feel better, I just picked up a couple of Kurt Suzuki printing plates and they each cost me over $10/piece.

I sometimes buy cards with the sole intention of trading it to a specific person, but never for profit.

Although back in 2000-2008, I would buy bulk lots of Nintendo games and sell them individually on eBay for profit. It was my main income through college and was working fairly well until eBay changed their rules to inhibit selling.

I found a Mike Olt Auto/Bat relic from Bowman Platinum in the 4/$5 bin...but I haven't had the courage to part with it yet. In that same purchase I bought a Silk Aaron Hill, which is now selling on ebay.

I usually don't but stuff to flip. Unless I have knowledge of the item(video games, cards, toys), I'm not going out for a profit. I may see something I already have, but I'll buy it if I may know a fellow collector who doesn't have said item.

And I must say that you got an incredible deal on both the cards and the figures. I probably would've bought the hockey cards(only have a few that I had since I was a kid, don't know what happened to the rest of them) and a few of the figures(those would be to flip, maybe $1 each).

Yeah... I figure I can't go wrong on the figures. If nobody wants them for a buck/piece... I'll donate them to a toy drive next X-mas. Although some 5 year old is going to think, who the heck is Captain Kirk?

Unfortunatly yes. Because I don't have the funds to buy as much stuff I'd like I sometimes pick up some stuff I know I can dangle them as trade bait.Since I live in Japan right now, a majority of the stuff I've picked up with the intention of flipping have been oddballs that I got for cheap. Like some Topps base cards from 2002 & 2003 with the backs written entirely in Japanese, some MLB cards released by Konami in 2006 and most recently Sega Card Gen. However sometimes I did have to spend quite a sum of money for trade bait, notably a Bryce Harper jersey card, a Ken Griffey Jr. Card Gen card, a Javier Baez auto and a handful of Norichika Aoki cards.

There is a demand for Nori Aoki cards, mostly amongst Brewers fans who were more than satisfied with his performance in 2012. And I'm really hoping that I'll be able to sell some of my Card Gen dupes for big bucks when I go back to the states. I know I'll definitely be able to get away with charging $50 for a Derek Jeter base (mwuhahaha).As for the Japanese Topps cards, they look exactly the flagship cards Topps released in 2002 & 2003, except with everything in Japanese on the back.

About Me

I've been collecting cardboard off and on since the early 80's. I'm presently collecting. But who knows what the future holds in store for me.
One thing is for certain... I'll have my blog to help relieve some of my favorite hobby moments.